How Has Amazon Changed Middle-earth Canon?
ANSWER: This question has also been phrased as “Is Amazon’s Rings of Power canon middle earth?” The short answer to the question about whether Amazon’s show is canon is NO, it is NOT canon. At least, it’s not canonical with respect to J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories and essays about Middle-earth. The Vulcans have a saying: “Only J.R.R. Tolkien can canonicalize Middle-earth.” Or something like that.
The Amazon show doesn’t even qualify as a loose adaptation. They have intentionally, deliberately (and previously contractually) omitted or ignored most of what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about the Second Age of Middle-earth (and Middle-earth in general). Despite what Websites like Screenrant tell you, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a considerable amount of information about the Second Age. It’s just that most of that material was published posthumously, which tends to affect all rights to adaptations.
The Tolkien Estate owns the literary rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and essays. But JRRT himself sold off the film and TV rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the 1960s. Those rights were eventually acquired by Saul Zaentz, who established what became Middle-earth Enterprises. And in 2022 the Embracer Group purchased Middle-earth Enterprises from the Saul Zaentz Company.
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